The cramp hit landscaper Stephen Martin’s leg like a vice grip, a sharp reminder that after 47 summers in landscaping, his body still demands respect.
“You’ll get some muscle aches, almost like a charley horse,” Martin said, describing the warning signs when he doesn’t drink enough water during Marblehead’s increasingly brutal heat.
Summer 2025 has brought relentless heat to Marblehead, with a triple-digit heat index in June and multiple 90-degree days in July, hitting outdoor workers, older adults and those without air conditioning hardest. The worst came June 23-25, when the National Weather Service issued an extreme heat warning, with the heat index — soaring from combined temperature and humidity — reaching 107 degrees. The heat persisted, with six July days above 90 degrees, peaking at 95 on July 16. The monthly average hit 76.2 degrees — 2.5 degrees above normal — making even typical days oppressive.
No shade, no pause
While Martin’s personal battle with the heat highlights the physical toll on workers, others across Marblehead face similar struggles under the relentless sun.
Marblehead Postmaster Chris King knows which of the town’s 29 postal routes prove most punishing for his 40 carriers.
“The ones that have no shade, the ones that are not on the water,” King said, describing the difference between delivering mail along Ocean Avenue, where sea breezes provide relief, versus trudging through the inland neighborhoods around Franklin Street, where colonial houses block any breeze and pavement radiates heat like a griddle.
Police Sgt. Timothy Morley knows that difference intimately. Working seven to 10 traffic details monthly — often stationed at construction sites with zero shade — he’s learned that mental focus becomes as challenging as physical endurance.
“You just get tired, and you just gotta battle that out,” Morley said while working a Pleasant Street detail. He described eight-hour shifts directing traffic.
When King and Morley spoke to the Current, they were enduring four straight days of punishing heat. July 14 felt heavy and damp, with sweat clinging through 82-degree air. July 15-16, meanwhile, hit 90 degrees as rising humidity turned the air swampy and still, pushing heat indexes near 100. Thursday reached 95 degrees, with dew points in the 70s and a heat index over 103, making even shaded air oppressive. Stepping from an air-conditioned car into a store felt like entering an oven.
MMLD meets record demand
The oppressive heat not only tests workers’ endurance but also strains the town’s infrastructure, pushing systems like the power grid to their limits.
During last summer’s June 24 heat wave, Joseph Kowalik watched electricity demand at Marblehead Municipal Light Department climb to unprecedented levels.
“We had eight hours that exceeded last year’s peak,” said Kowalik, the department’s general manager, as residents cranked air conditioners like never before.
The cascade effect created more than 100 power outages across town. Kowalik’s nine-person line crew climbed poles and crawled into underground vaults while temperatures hovered near 100 degrees.
“Everyone worked from seven in the morning until 11 at night,” he recalled.
The National Weather Service recorded over a dozen 90-degree days in Boston this year. Marblehead’s coastal location usually tempers heat, but this summer’s high humidity has made sweat cling to skin. According to ProPublica, Climate scientists predict that by 2050, Massachusetts summers will resemble Maryland’s, with Marblehead facing 19–25 more 90-degree days annually.
Cold showers and kindness
Martin, who owns a Marblehead landscaping business, noted the toughest tasks: spreading mulch, which heats like compost and reeks in high temperatures, and working unshaded from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., when pavement hits 140 degrees. He ends workdays at 3:30 p.m., recognizing when heat clouds his thinking.
“You can lose your focus and energy. Sometimes, if it gets really too hot,” Martin said, “you kind of get heat stressed.”
Marblehead residents often provide workers relief. Morley described “a wonderful woman up the street last week” on Pleasant Street who brought frozen water bottles that worked first like ice packs and then refreshingly cold drinks. Postal customers routinely meet their carriers at the door with bottled water, and motorists have been known to roll down their windows to pass Gatorade to police details.
Martin said his routine after the toughest days remains unchanged since 1978: “Just go home and relax. Take a shower — a nice, cold shower — to cool off.“
